


I Am from the Gutter Too

by TheOokamiAngel



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-05 04:39:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1089706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOokamiAngel/pseuds/TheOokamiAngel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Javert's life reflections. Takes place as the same time as the song Javert's Suicide. Done 'Wicked'-style with just a look into Javert's past that might have made him the way he was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Am from the Gutter Too

**Author's Note:**

> I did this for an AP Psych project in high school and thought meh...this isn't terrible, so I uploaded. Let me know what you think and thank you for reading.

I Am From the Gutter Too

            Javert couldn’t believe what had just happened. Rather than killing him, Valjean had saved his life. He stared after Valjean’s retreating form, with a breaking feeling in his body. What was he now? All he had believed in, all that he had built his life on was just destroyed in a matter of minutes. He stumbled a bit as he thought. He began to walk without a destination as he reminisced on the events that lead him to this day. Tracking a criminal for years, hungry for justice, but yet it had begun long before Valjean was in his life. Back when he was a young boy growing up in jail.

            Javert realized now his legs were leading him towards the Seine. He frowned as he looked out at the river. He could no longer remember what his father’s name was or his true surname. Through out his whole life the Inspector had gone by Javert, though it was not his true father’s name. He closed his eyes remembering without much difficulty.

            He could picture it perfectly. He was a young chap of eight at the time. His gypsy mother just had her jail time extended for tempting a guard with ‘black magic’. Javert, simply known as Jail-boy at the time, had never been outside of the prison. A certain guard took a liking to the young boy, and having decided jail was no place for the young boy, he took custody of him. Young Javert didn’t mind; the guard gave the young boy his family name, which was Javert, and took him in as his own. The boy had a father now; he thought he would be happy. He was mostly at first, anyway. Javert Senior, or Sir as Javert was forced to call him, was a stickler for rules. Javert could still remember his motto. “Those who sin and those who break the law even once, are damned to burn in the eternal flames of hell!” It was Sir’s favorite thing to say. He would make the young Javert write it over and over again, hundreds of times a day. Hours and hours of his childhood were spent memorizing the law to a single letter. He would sit for hours being lectured, taught, and warned of the dangers of the world and the evils of the people in it. At night Javert would go to bed wondering who in this world could possibly be good.

            As he grew to a young teen, Javert took up the act of reading. He read all he could. This activity, however, didn’t last long. His glorious days of reading were killed by a single question he had one day during a lesson. “All men who steal deserve to be thrown into labor camps and worked to death!” Sir proclaimed.

            Javert paused in his note taking to look at him. His brows furrowed for a moment as he looked to the man he respected and feared, “Even Robin Hood, Sir?” he asked cautiously. It was an innocent question. He had just finished reading all he could on the mythical man who stole from the rich to give to the poor. _A hero._ The young Javert had decided. _One who was greatly needed in the world now, considering all the poor there are now._

            Sir, however, clearly disagreed. His eyes filled with rage as he slapped Javert harshly, glaring at him, “Have I taught you nothing boy?! One who steals is one who dies! There is not justification in the law. It is not situational! It does not matter if you have ‘reasons’! You broke the law and law breakers will be punished!” Sir screamed at the young teen, smacking him until the boy’s face was red and tears were falling. His books, all his books, were taken away that day. The message, and the lesson, was clear. Trapped in Javert’s head. It does not matter why. A crime is a crime. Criminals will be punished, excuses are lies.

            “Excuses are lies…” Javert muttered now under his breath as he watched the Seine, but Sir was wrong. Valjean was proof of that.  He had sinned. He had stolen, yet he was good. Javert thought again on the day Valjean, whom was thought of as Monsieur Madeleine at the time, turned himself in to save an innocent man. _What made him do that?_ Javert wondered now, _If Valjean had done nothing, Champmathieu would have been taken as him and Valjean would have been free._ To this day it puzzled the Inspector. All the stories of Monsieur Madeleine at Montreuil-sur-Mer were that of a kind and generous man, who always went out of his way to help others. To Javert, a man like that couldn’t possibly be a criminal; the same man who had just given him, Javert, his life, and saved a boy, who Valjean barely knew.  They couldn’t both be. Valjean the criminal and Valjean the hero.

            Valjean so much like Robin Hood. Escaping again and again, always with a good reason. Always with good intentions, but a thief and robber. They couldn’t both be. Javert trembled now. He was stuck, all his lessons unraveling themselves. Sir’s words had been lies. _A pure man who stole_ , Javert thought, “It can’t be!” He announced to the world. He trembled thinking, “But it is!” He stumbled forward, sighing as he jumped into the Seine letting the water wash him away, and all the sins he had committed.


End file.
